A MUSIC FESTIVAL IN WHEELER?

A new music festival is being organized for the Coast this summer; if it comes off, it’ll be in Wheeler, in mid-July. Successor to the old Crab Festival—with the price of crab headed for the same stratosphere as gasoline (in this case, because of overseas sales—and one can’t complain, since local boys are getting the money), and the bar that spearheaded the old event out of business, they want to do something different. Both Deathgrass and The Impromptus (who are determined to get a better name—I think they’re leaning towards “45 Degrees North”) are on the agenda, and the bands are intended to be paid.

Seven sales of the Deathgrass CD in the few days since copies arrived. A record company with that kind of sales record would be firing everybody, but on our scale, it’s exciting. Worth noting that every one of the sales (including the one yesterday through one of the Retail Outlets) was to somebody I know personally. Two retail outlets—Office Only in Wheeler and the new music store in Tillamook (which is in the old Economic Development office on Third St., just south of Main, next to the Muddy Waters coffee shop)—have the CD; I’ve got leads on three more (in Garibaldi, Bay City and Nehalem), and am still looking for willing outlets in Pacific City, Rockaway, and Manzanita.

The schedule is starting to fill up; I’ve been invited back to Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriter’s Showcase at the Thirsty Lion June 14 (I do like playing there); the puppet show is in Garibaldi June 17; Ilwaco with 45 Degrees North on June 18, the Wheeler music festival (if it comes off) with both bands in mid-July, Garibaldi Days with Deathgrass end July, and the Manzanita Farmer’s Market Friday, August 12. The Rocktoberfest, too—that’s Sept. 18 & 19 (I’m not sure which day Deathgrass is playing). All that, and it’s only May. I should expect to be fitting a job in with all of that, too.

One more application to finish, and I’ll have four city-manager applications in the pipeline; three are cities that have problems (I do seem to be attracted to those—I don’t know if it’s hubris, or if I think I’m just not employable by anybody normal). A local job to apply for, too (and I’d really like that, and have told them so); a friend of mine has been praying for me to get a local job, and her prayers just might get answered.

With the shortage of time in mind, I need to organize the setlists for the 45 Degrees North concerts; two of them will be 3-hour shows, we are not well-practiced, and it would be good to have the setlists overlap as much as possible. The solution is probably to sit down with each of the performers and record their material, arrange it in order, and give everybody CDs. I can do this with the Tascam; I have work-arounds for the one-song-at-a-time limitation and the can’t-record-instrument-and-voice-at-the-same-time limitation.

StuartLittle, the “portable” computer, adapted to the Tascam right away—no special drivers needed—and that may be true of other PCs, too; if not, Stuart can travel. And the old 6-channel mixer lets me record guitar and voice together. (I do have to experiment and see whether the output from the mixer should be characterized as “voice,” “guitar” or “line.”) Everybody’s got roughly 45 minutes of music they lead; ought to be able to do the recording in a few hours apiece.

Setlists to do for the Deathgrass performances as well, but I expect that will be easier; I have setlists from our past performances at Garibaldi Days and the Rocktoberfest, and they may not need a lot of modification.

Joe